Rating: 
Summary: fooled by rationalization
Review: This book is an attempt by the author to answer the question
"If you're so smart why aren't you rich?". By dismissing
planning and insight, he is able to justify why highly intelligent academics
such as himself are such poor investors.
A disappointing diatribe.
Rating: 
Summary: Leave Your Ego at the Door
Review: Clearly this book rubs many people the wrong way. Taleb does not have too much respect for many icons like Warren Buffet (balanced with his worship of Karl Popper or Robert Shiller). He can particularly scathe the reader who was successful (as witnessed by many anonymous lashing at him in here). But he can also soothe many people to whom fate did not deliver a good life (without it being a fault of theirs).At another level, this book is not for engineers --or those whose identification of probability lies in the mere computation of the stupid thing. In that respect Taleb has nothing to do with Paulos or Bernet or these mathematicians. His interpretation of probability is SKEPTICISM first and last. he explicitly shows that the important probabilites for him are NOT COMPUTABLE; he focuses on the Black Swan (the rare event) and his devastating effect --Taleb has been known to be the opponent of financial engineering... In addition engineers like nerdy expositions lined up as in a textbook. Many are irritated at his literary treatment of the topic. Finally Taleb engages himself. If I had to say that he has ego, it is owing to the confidence one has to have to display his own failures. He shows the reader that he is a fool of randomness "the fool of all fools". I can't believe someone can be called arrogant for explaining his dealing with cancer or his inability to control his emotions. Small time engineers should read Paulos etc (only one chapter overlaps with the themes). Taleb is a thinker of probability. His competition is Keynes (Treatise on Probability), Isaac Levi (Gambling with Chance), and the literature on scepticism.
Rating: 
Summary: Important ideas badly presented (but see these better books)
Review: Let's ignore the author's obvious eagerness to show us how much smarter than everyone else around him he is, and how "cool" he is by being unconventional. The core ideas he attempts to present ARE important, but he does them a disservice by his scattershot explanations and disjointed examples. This wouldn't be so bad if he was presenting new ideas or theories, but he is mostly simply rehashing rather old thoughts. To be more positive, here are some books that cover many of the same topics but in much clearer and more entertaining ways: "Inevitable Illusions : How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds" by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, "How to Lie with Statistics" by D. Huff, and most anything by John Allen Paulos.
Rating:
Summary: Best trading book on my list of many
Review: As a trader and trainer / coach of other traders I have found Randomness absolutely brilliant. I must add that we day trade the forex market and living with that price action is a lesson in randomness second to none. The section on "noise" is probably the best part of the book. It helped me to clarify many concepts that lies at the heart of short-term trading. I love it - stand aside "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" you have been de-throned (at least on my list).
Rating:
Summary: Irreverent--nothing to do with agasint the gods.
Review: the tone of this immensely enjoyable book is neither arrogant nor bombasic. it is simply that the author is irreverent and does not respect rich businessmen to the extent he likes scientists and thinkers. also he tends to dislike people who takes themselves seriously, particularly media journalists.
another point: taleb's book contradicts the tenets of "against the gods". for taleb probability is qualitative and essentially non measurable. it is just a way of thinking, a way of being. nothing to do with any other book on randomness like dennet.
i love this book
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable Ideas With Some Spicy Hubris
Review: Very enjoyable read, albeit gratuitous negative comments about the intelligence of others detracts from some good ideas. For instance, Taleb has difficulty comprehending Warren Buffett's success. I believe Mr. Buffet knows his business, and hope Mr. Taleb can demonstrate even half as much success; he'll become a wealthy man. Like Richard Feynman, Mr. Buffett grasps the practical meaning behind the equations. Dr. Feynman often argued that understanding the phenomenon behind the equations was more important than the ability to write equations. Deduction was also a key part of his approach. He further argued that if one can't explain the phenomenon without resorting to equations, one really doesn't understand what is going on. Another proponent of the deep understanding approach is Tavakoli in her book "Credit Derivatives". Tavakoli clearly explains the products and then discusses the strengths and weaknesses of models and addresses the weakness of the VAR approach to managing credit risk. Ironically, Tavakoli and Taleb have similar views on VAR, but Tavakoli's writing style is very different and much more enjoyable in "Credit Derivatives". Mr. Taleb recommends a strategy of buying out-of-the-money options, which can go wrong if implied volatility is higher than actual volatility for extended periods. Volatility is often underpriced, but it can also be dramatically overpriced at times. Mr. Taleb's trading performance would experience trouble during those periods.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent food for thought!
Review: I am deeply impressed by the author's critical thinking and his courage for challenging "popular" thoughts and gurus/academics/masters of universe who are more successful (in wealth and fame) than the author himself. With vivid use of interesting stories and histories, the author points out that we, human beings, are probability blind (fooled by randomness). For "long term" investment and trading success, we have to fight hard against our natural instincts, that we should use mathematics as a means of thinking instead of computing; that we should be aware of the noise (non significant price fluctuations), randomness of pure conincidence in past incidents, survivorship bias etc before drawing causalties; that of solon's warning of "it aint over until it's over"; that of the possibility of a quantum leap/jump (non linearity) instead of a gradual change of events .... and many other biases and misunderstandings. In case you still dont have a clue of what I wrote above and just wanna know whether you really need this book or not, please give the following quiz (pg. 159) a try:- A test of a disease presents a rate of 5% false positives. The disease strikes 1/1000 of the population. People are tested at random, regardless of whether they are suspected of having the disease. A patient's test is positive. What is the probability of the patient being striken with the disease? Most doctors answered 95%. The answer is the conditional probability that the patient is sick and the test shows it - close to 2%. Less than one in five professionals got it right. If you dont get the above right, I strongly recommend you to buy the book. It will give you a preventive shot against the faults and errors inherent in your journalists' investment reports. p.s. (Ans: Out of 1000 patients who are administered the test, one will be expected to be afflicted. Therefore 999 are healthy but the test will identify about 50 with the disease (it is 95% accurate). So the correct ratio would be 1 in 51, i.e. 2%)
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: I can't remember the last time I've found a book so frustrating. The idea that society and our internal wiring combine to make us see significance where there's really only randomness is a topic that isn't written about nearly enough. This book, though, just combines a lot self-regard with a few anecdotes and ideas. This isn't a textbook, it's true, but it would have been easy for the author to support his claims with concrete numeric examples. He does this a few times, such as the well-known birthday "paradox" or the example copied from Deborah Bennett's (much better) book "Randomness". But in general, his examples aren't in the least bit mathematical and tend to be overburdened with pseudo-intellectual remarks. Do the author's repeated claims of contempt for TV and the media or his attraction to classics and poetry really matter at all? At one point, he makes the claim that watching TV takes more energy for him than writing a book. I believe it, but not for the reason he had in mind.
Rating:
Summary: Probabalistic Philosophy
Review: As other reviewers have pointed out, this book is not a trading manual. If you are looking for usable market techniques, look elsewhere. However, for those with a classical bent, who enjoy the history of ideas and occasionally even wonder about topics more metaphysical than where the Dow closed today, this is a nice read. Mr. Taleb selects a few lessons from probability theory as applied to the markets, and illustrates them with characters drawn (presumably) from his own life or from his considerable literary knowledge. We learn, for example, why if we watch our portfolios too closely we may be unhappy even with a winning record, why working hard to get that home in the best neighborhood may make our lives miserable, and how our best hope against the depredations of Fortune is personal dignity. Read this for perspective, not portfolio advice.
Rating:
Summary: Goes Rather Deeply Into the Cognitive Problems
Review: Almost all readers fail to see that Taleb's exercise is a personal essay/memoir not a catalogue/textbook (he discusses matters casually and does not quote reference papers). But it is his points that are misunderstood. Point 1 is that mathematical models of randomness inspired from physics do not work in the social sciences (he advocates a Popperian/Humean form of asymmetric skepticism). Point 2 is that we are not made to behave in rational manner in the front of randomness EVEN WHEN WE UNDERSTAND THE MATHEMATICS.
Taleb uses himself as Ginea pig with dramatic honesty at times. The style is deceptive: the book goes very deep and is linked to the modern cognitive literature (Pinker/Girgerenzer/Ledoux/Damasio/E.O. Wilson...) although not many sources are quoted.
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